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Welcome to the website of the ultimate tone tools:
Boutique, entirely hand-made pickups for guitar & bass!
WHY should you try GAS Pickups?
Well, we give you 3 simple reasons:
1. Improve the dynamics in the sound of an electric instrument.
2. Upgrade an electric instrument's tone with 100% handwound pickups, made from the worldwide BEST, hand picked materials!
3.
Expand the tonal range of an electric
instrument.
Here are the latest
catalogue and price list:
And, for anything else as infos, inquiries, etc, please feel free to mail us at info@gaspickups.com
NEW!!!!
Our main retailer is
now Music Accessories shop!
For international
customers: Visit our retailer's website www.musicaccessories.gr for
ordering!
Enjoy your stay here!!!
Please scroll down on this page, in order to:
- Read our
HOT NEWS,
- Find some interesting information about the design and production of our pickups,
- See some of our custom projects
Or be sure to
visit the website's subpages, by clicking on the relevant knobs on
top of this page:
-
"Singles",
"Buckers",
"Bass" pages are
Product pages and obviously feature more details on our
products.
- "Sound" page has lots of GAS Pickups' videos & soundclips.
HOT
NEWS
- July 25th: Steel
alloy correct Telly bridge pickup baseplates (made in the US), now
available on certain GAS T-Singles!
- June 28th: New GAS Pickups S Single set: "GASRV"!
After many requests,
we decided to create a special S set for the ultimate Texas
Blues/Rock sound, to the style of legend SRV. After many tests on
different configurations we created a mixed set wth A3 & A5
singles, using Polysol as well as Heavy PVA wire, different coil
airslots, as well as flat top & bevel top rods! The result is a
huge sound, fat and spanky on neck, nice bluesy flavor in the mid
position and roaring snarl on bridge. The (hum free) in-between
sounds provide also the well known, rich harmonic
quak.
More infos soon on
our S Singles section...
- June 26th: Our G Pickups in the "Legend" version.
Featuring correct
alloy screws and pole shoes, but foremost our exclusively made, A5
rough cast magnet bars, which provide that mellow, old school touch
to the sound, with an enormous dynamic range!
Available
now!
Check'em
out!
About GAS
Pickups
GAS
pickups
Elektrisola P155 wire
reels
A Mini coil winder by
CNC
Alnico bars in GAS
(II, III, V)
German Nickel covers
(new and aged look)
Frequency response
curves on the Pickup Analyzer screen
Different staggering
on GAS S singles
Wax potting of a
GAStone S single
Aged PAFoid M
humbucker with cover
We
knew...
When we decided to
proceed with the manufacturing of guitar pickups, we knew that it
was a really tough thing. But we made it even more demanding: We
didn’t want to be “just another” pickup manufacturer. We wanted to
produce fine, yet affordable guitar & bass pickups, covering a
wide range in the sound spectrum of the electric guitar & bass,
so that quite everyone would find his favorite one. And, further
from that, we wanted to be able to create custom models, in order
to satisfy even the most demanding players! Our main motto: "Get
YOUR pickup!"
And so, we moved
on.
Countless hours of
studying (again, after 25 years!) the Physics, in order to be able
to design properly: A guitar pickup is WAY MORE than just winding a
coil…
Whole weeks of researching the world market for the best materials…
Dozens of coffee mugs
really helped keeping our heads in place...
All GAS Pickups are designed here in our lab, and they are handwound and hand assembled! Further, all GAS Pickups' parts are made strictly in the US, Italy and Germany! We test all pickups one by one here in GAS, before shipping. And this is our main warranty to you!
We knew… …but we took our chance!
Wire: A
"fine" thing...
The wire, which is used for the pickup coils, is one of the most important materials for creating good pickups, and also for keeping the consistency of the production line on a high level.
After using for some
short period the traditional plain enamel wire, for GAS
Pickups we mainly use the P155 - Grade 1 "Polysol enamelled" copper
wire from Elektrisola™ (AWG 42 & 43), a world leader in
industrial wire manufacturing. The P155 is not just another copper
wire. It furthermore has a thin tin layer over the copper (tinned
before enamelling), that keeps the outer wire surface absolutely
even, and ensures constant resistance and capacitance over length
unit (WAY better than the plain enamel wire!!!). And this is
a crucial fact for perfect coils with maximum
consistency.
Further upon, Grade 2
PVA AWG 42 copper wire from Elektrisola, is also used on some GAS
models. This features a thick insulation from the same material as
the old Formvar® wire!
A nice turn...
When deciding on the
coil winding machine, it was clear that we needed a really
professional, reliable solution, that would allow precise creation
of the designed coils, as well as easy, perfect recreation of any
of them.
That's why we finally
went for the CNC
mini coil winder®. That small unit, operated
entirely from a PC, allows not only precise coil winding, but also
perfect reproduction (since all coil designs are saved in its
library directories). Further upon, automatic-, manual- and also
scatterwound winding are offered. It's easy to operate and needs
very limited space due to its small footprint.
Magnetic
issues...
Magnetic material
sets the prerequisites for the main dynamic behavior of a pickup.
In GAS Pickups we use AlNiCo II, III and V cast magnet bars &
rods, and also OX Ceramic bars.
AlNiCo material
affects also the inductance of the coils, and therefore the final
frequency response of the pickup. Our A5 magnet bars are made by
the world's top manufacturers in the US, the same ones who
delivered magnet bars in the 50's & 60's to the top US music
industry brands!
All magnet bars and
rods are strictly magnetized by our suppliers on our specs.
Although, during our extensive quality control, poor magnetized
bars & rods are trashed, and replaced with proper ones, in
order to ernsure the required field strenth and
homogeneity.
Base, Roof
& in-between...
Metal parts used in
humbuckers, like baseplates and covers, can be really disastrous
for the sound, since these may sigificantly increase the Eddy
currents and thus decrease the upper mids and treble response of
the pickup. The effect appears mostly (but not only...) on cheap
pickups.
The baseplates and
covers used in the GAS humbuckers are made exclusively from high
quality German Silver (copperles plated!), a material with
extremely high impendance, in order to keep the Eddy currents as
low as possible. Other small tricks, as inslulating the magnet bar
& poleshoe from the baseplate, do also help on reducing those
currents.
Further upon, also
all other metal parts in our humbuckers (fillister screws, slugs,
poleshoes, mounting screws, etc.) are of the best available
quality, ensuring proper function of the designed magnetic
circuit.
The naked
truth...
The assembled pickup
needs to be measured, in order for its correct functionality to be
verified. However, to just measure its R-L-C data it's not enough
at all. The frequency response is the main measure that will show
if the pickup really works as it was designed to.
For this task we use
the Lemme Pickup
Analyzer, a PC based tool that allows precise
measurement of the frequency response of a stand alone pickup, but
also when connected to a volume and/or a tone control, with a
cable, etc.
Correct
staggering...
For proper balancing
between strings and best response, we set the correct pole
staggering on our pickups, which is almost unique for every
guitar.
While for Humbuckers and G-Singles it's fairly easy to set up the screw height anytime, S- and T-Singles, GAS-Masters as well as Bass pickups require a very careful staggering, depending mainly on their position on the relevant guitar. Currently, most of our single coil bobbins arrive already with our GAS Custom staggering.,
Wax against
howling...
In order to keep GAS pickups as immune as possible against feedback, we do pot them inside a wax mixture (paraffine & bee wax).
Wax potting, however,
affects the resonance frequency by lowering it for a few hundreds
of Hz (depending on the model and the potting time). Therefore, we
have to consider this side effect into the initial pickup design,
so that the final, potted pickup delivers the desired frequency
response curve.
Lookin'
old...
Since Aging was (and
still is) core business for G.A.S., we can deliver any of our
pickups in aged look. Just ask!.
Tired
of testing dozens of pickups, and never get really satisfied?
Need the perfect match for YOUR specific guitar, on YOUR own
style?
Then,
just ask the GAS Custom Shop! We will discuss with you your
specific needs and then, we'll design and built YOUR OWN custom
pickup model.
Many GAS pickup users already have their own pickup model(s) on their axes. Just scroll down and have a look!
Manolis "Doc"
Tsigkos - INNER-Bucker (custom
humbucker)
Manolis "Doc" Tsigkos, guitar player of the Greek metal band "Innerwish" and the Dio tribute band "Rock 'n' Roll Children", needed a special designed bridge humbucker for his 1980 Les Paul,Custom.
The guitar, typically
for the end 70's Gibson era, has that heavy sippo mahogany, maple
neck and ebony fingerboard, a combination which allows great attack
and low end, but very poor upper midrange.
We designed a pickup close to our GAShopper (see in our Buckers section for more info), but with more midrange response for it, and the result was the INNER-bucker, making a really roaring guitar. On neck position we put a GAShopper neck model..
Bill Kottos -
GASe of
Spades (Custom Humbucker)
Bill "Killer" Kottos,
guitar player of the Greek Motorhead tribute band " NO REMORSE",
brought his brand new, custom made Les Paul Custom in order for us
to design a bridge humbucker that would deliver that aggressive,
trebly sound that suits best on Motorhead songs.
The guitar is made from light Kaya african mahogany, flame maple neck and top, and tiger ebony fingerboard. In order to enhance the upper mids, we took our GASer Plus (see in our Buckers section for more info) as basic design, and put an extremely highly charged OX magnet bar (160mTesla field!) inside. Further upon we designed the coils to be extremely unbalanced, so that the bite was higher. The pickup is named the "GASe of Spades", and it really delivers that killer sound!
Michalis
Kontogiorgis - SIN-Bucker (Custom
Humbucker)
Michalis
Kontogiorgis, guitar player of the Greek Ozzy tribute band "The
Ultimate Sin", wanted to replace the two EMGs in his MIJ ESP
Eclipse with regular, passive pickups. We took a GASer
(see in our Buckers section for more info) and
modified it for more bite and aggression, and the SIN-bucker
was born.
On neck position we placed a PAFoid M humbucker.
Terry
Mavridis - Custom 5 string Jazz GAS 60
Terry Mavridis (bass
player at Michalis Rakintzis band, Motive, as well
as on many projects/bands) wanted to modify his Odyssey 5-string
bass to a "Jazz Bass (TM) sounding" one.
He came to GAS and we
discussed the options for this request. A really tough project,
since the bass initially had soapbar Bartolinis, with same length
on both positions! We designed and built two custom 5-string
Jazz-GAS pickups, but we had to extremely modify the new pickup
coils to be able to fit inside the existing
routes.
Neck pickup was voiced really deep, bridge pickup was made for a more brillant, full JB sound. Finally, two different capacitors (22nF & 47nF) were added in order for Terry to have different sound options.
GAS
Pickups on social media:
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Studio
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Limited Warranty:
GAS
Pickups have a limited warranty of 3 years after
purchasing (as dated on the pickup warranty card). We will
either repair or replace your pickup with a new one (same model) in
case that your pickup fails due to improper production/quality
control from our side. Installation of the repaired/new pickup is
included. After the 3 year period, we will replace a failed pickup
by charging ONLY the replacement costs.
The
limited warranty does not cover damaged pickups
due to any further cause (improper
installation, re-installation & de-installation,
exposure to heat/humidity, coil deformation, exposure to high
magnetic field, improper electrical connection). Freight costs
during pickup replacement are on the customer. Warranty is not
valid without the relevant pickup warranty card.
All
trades are imposed to the EU law.
Disclaimer:
All company names used here (Gibson, CNC, EMG, Elektrisola, Lemme, Fender), and also all product names (Strat, Telly, Jazz-Bass, Precision Bass, Les Paul, P90, P155) that are mentioned in the website, are registered names of the relevant companies and in no way related to GAS pickups.